Holograph

So I go into drugstores now
looking at their seasonal,
assessing the artfulness
or lack.
One night I dreamt
you were in a round store
that curved and curved.
I go into drugstores
looking for you.

Whatever you are doing,
I wonder how you're doing it
and how from now to Christmas
you'll have no time
for anything
but drugstores.
I go into drugstores now
thinking of you.

I find myself peering
around the next endcap,
waiting for you.
Like a holographic image
you will always be here
in these aisles;
in the small appliances,
the health and beauty aids,
dangling the keys
to everything.

I go into drugstores now
remembering how
you taught me to drape
garland onto
artifical trees.
I astroproject myself back.

You are
in hushpuppies,
soundless.
The basement landscape
stairs descend
into endless overstock.

Endless hours, waiting, waiting
wanting so much to learn
whatever it was
I was apprenticing for.